fledge capable of flying, from Middle English flegge, from Old English -flycge; akin to Old High German flucki capable of flying,Old English flEogan to fly -- more at FLY

intransitive verb, of a young bird: to acquire the feathers necessary for flight or independent activity

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Sewing, clothes, kids and love.

I started this post in December, 2008. I just never really had the nerve to say what I need to say out loud. I've been waiting for the powers that be to say something like, "Um, Nancy, we made a mistake. No, not going to happen. Thanks for playing."

This is an announcement and I'm not terribly comfortable announcing it. Oh, it's good news, for sure. It's just that, well, I suffer from a bit of underconfidence. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. I mean, if you don't do anything, you don't do anything embarrassing. On the other hand, if you don't do anything, you don't do anything. Which is a bad thing.

The six people who actually read this blog know what I am about to announce anyway, so it's not much of an announcement. But announce I will. Here goes:

I was asked to write a book. Title: Sewing Clothes Kids Love. A book about sewing, clothes, kids and love.

And I said yes.

And I wrote it.

There. I said it.

Now, just forget I said that until it's published.

And then buy the book.

All right, all right, let's back up a bit. Yes, I have written the manuscript for a book about sewing for children. To be published with Creative Publishing International. Now, let me make this very clear: I might be the hands for this book, but YOU--and you and you and you over there and you hiding over there...YOU are the heart of this book. This might be my baby, but Sabine Pollehn is the mother (not the best metaphor; I'll have something better for the book). This book will be comprised of inspiration, ideas, patterns and the joy of creating clothing for your very special little someone as started by Sabine Pollehn. There are plenty of also-rans (yours truly included) and I love them all. But Sabine was the genesis of this kind of creating children's clothing.

And then I want to also somehow capture the story of how much the creative talents of Nic and Maiga and Jeanette and Claudia and Diba and Sanna and Chris and and and and*...have organically and spontaneously added new spice to this stew of ideas (still not a great metaphor: I've saved any good writing for the book). Farbenmix and studioTANTRUM/Fledge really is the old Stone Soup story: Everybody adding a little bit to nourish the creative endeavors of thousands. I truly hope this book documents the phenomenon.

But then there will also be a lot of real value in this book. I get it: The economy. Luxury and non-essential purchases are being dropped faster than Jennifer when Brad saw Angelina walk on set. So there will be a lot of bang for the buck. Lots of projects and sewing patterns. And goodies at that! No duds. No napkins, I promise. The value of the patterns will very likely well, well exceed the cover price. I've been reading reader reviews on Amazon for sewing and crafting books. I'm paying attention. Pretty pictures is one thing, but something to really sink our sergers into is what a lot of you want. But the book will be beautiful. How do I know? Well, for one thing, I am contractually obligated to produce beauty. It's right there in the wording of the contract. Seriously: I put my name on the dotted line to create "beauty". So far, I've pursued beauty, but now I'm contractually obligated to capture it. Have I? I think I have. Very likely in more, but in three particular instances, for sure, I'm confident that there is something beautiful. What has been beautiful is the support and contributions and enthusiasm of many people. That's for sure. I've tried to weave together a tapestry of talent.

I'm not very comfortable with self-promotion. Either you like what I do or you don't. And I'm good with that. Mostly. But, really, between you and me, what I truly want is for you and everybody to do something creative and expressive and do it with love. If I can facilitate that in some way, then I want to do it. I hope that is what happens with this book. I envision this to be a book for beginners, absolutely, but I am not leaving the more advanced sewists with nothing to do. Wait until you see what we have for you. There are many lovely, lovely absolute beginner books and I think they have done an excellent job of introducing sewing to the many, many people for whom the craft of sewing has skipped a generation. My planned book is for those of you bitten by the bug and wanting to see how far you can go with your rotary cutter. Several design will be brand-spanking new. Several will be existing designs revisited and revised. This book will be an opportunity to really go in to detail of using these types of patterns and the different techniques we like to use to construct the garments.

And yes, there is every intention to publish it auf Deutsch. I think it needs to go Dutch, as well. Japanese? Oh, yeah! One step at a time. That's part of the reason we decided to do this project with this publisher, because they are very internationally present.

So why a book? Well, first off, the book came to me; I didn't go to it. In a world of go-getters, I suppose there must also be come-to-them-ers. And much of the time, I would count myself in the second category. And since the editor and publisher passed my test, which is basically recognizing that this style of handmade clothing design for children--despite our amateur ways, marketing naïvité and dogged independence--is a good thing. Some people just "get" it. If you get it, I don't need to explain it. If you don't get it, I can't explain it. Well, I'm going to have to be able to explain it. But I will to pry those pearls of wisdom from my oyster-shelled thought process ("oyster-shelled thought process"? I'm glad my editor is a good one. I need it.).

Thing is, I know I could do this. Well, I could do this with a lot of help from Sabine and a few others. As has been the case all along.

My manuscript is off. The patterns have been designed and drafted. The photographs have been taken. The editors are going over it with a fine-toothed comb this very instant. I did the very best I could. I put a lot of thought into it, Sabine put in a ton of beautiful work and I really hope we did a good job for you.

34 comments:

:0)I'm so happy for you!I've admired your patterns for a long time, I just have a couple of them which I had to sew up for little girl friends because I used to just have boys. I have a baby girl now and I'm excited for making her redondo skirts and such in a couple years. Anyway I'm pretty sure I will buy your book, I bet it will be awesome and I can't wait to see what's in it.

oo oo oo! I think I am one of the 6 that read your blog! :o)But alas I didn't know you were writing a book.Yay for you and I can't wait to see it--I am so addicted to designing little girls clothes it's embarrassing.still wanting to make my little skirt design into a pattern for sale and just cant get started.

I've been browsing online more than 3 hours lately, yet I by no means discovered any interesting article like yours. It's beautiful worth enough for me. Personally, if all site owners and bloggers made good content material as you did, the web might be a lot more useful than ever before. Here is my web page ... designer kids clothes

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About Me

There are four interdependent elements of flight: Lift, thrust, drag and weight. I will categorize each entry in this flight log/blog according to each of these elements of flight. Many things, for example, will end up in the Weight category. While Weight may seem the antithesis of flight, it is usually the things making up the weight--the passengers or payload--that are the reason for initiating flight. Therefore, no Weight, no flight. Thrust will be the things that inspire and propel me and, hopefully, us higher and farther. Drag will be the things that slow me and us down. And Lift will be those magic moments when we leave the earth and soar.

There is an art, or rather a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. ~Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

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